


Little Talk

by pkmntrainer_alex



Category: One Piece
Genre: Conversations, Gen, Homesickness, M/M, Sad and Happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-03
Updated: 2020-08-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:02:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25697746
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pkmntrainer_alex/pseuds/pkmntrainer_alex
Summary: Izo can't shake his intense feelings of sadness and homesickness on his own, and gets help from someone close to him.
Relationships: Izou/Thatch (One Piece)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Little Talk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TwoBladeBae](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoBladeBae/gifts).



> \- Felt compelled to write something like this all thanks to Jake <3  
> \- I've never written these two before but I desperately hope I've done them some kind of justice

The sky was blue and bright, dotted with full clouds that seemed to stretch on for miles. It was warm in the direct sunlight but cool in the shade, comfortable no matter where you stood on the deck of the ship. Waves broke against the bow of the ship ceaselessly, sending up a fine mist of salt that tingled on bare skin. For many years now, the ship and the sea around it had been Izo’s home. A home he’d chosen, surrounded by comrades - no, surrounded by  _ family _ \- removed from the life he’d left behind. It was where he belonged.

_ And yet. _ Izo found himself sitting alone at the very rear of the ship, watching its wake ripple and disappear over the water’s surface. He focused on the ridged surface of the water, trying to clear his mind and shake himself out of his low mood. The sadness had gripped at him for days, leaving him quiet and withdrawn around the family who loved him so. It was a feeling he couldn’t explain, a sadness that both took too many words to be explained and couldn’t be explained in words at all. The more it lingered, the more it ate at him.

“I couldn’t help but notice…” A man came up beside Izo, joining him at the ship’s stern, leaning his back against the taffrail with an easy smile on his face. The slight breeze moved his brown hair, which had been painstakingly styled into a fancy pompadour, and Izo moved his eyes from the sea to watch it sway. If it bothered Thatch at all, he gave no sign. “You’ve been  _ awfully _ quiet lately. And you know I can’t have that.”

Of course Thatch had noticed. Izo felt slightly silly for thinking his melancholy had gone entirely unnoticed. “It’s really nothing,” he promised Thatch, ignoring the guilt that accompanied his lie as he laid back on the deck, putting his hands behind his head. Looking straight up at the sky, the clouds moved much faster - soft streaks of white passing right by. “Just got myself wrapped up a little too tightly in my thoughts. I’m sure you know how that goes.”

Thatch let out a laugh, warm and happy. It brought a smile even to Izo’s face. “Get wrapped too tightly and you’ll choke. Again - I can’t have that.”

“I should have figured as much.”

Another laugh, and Izo listened to Thatch’s footsteps as he left the railing, joining him on the surface of the deck, on the boards warmed by the sun. He sat cross-legged, looking up at the sky as Izo was - well, as Izo  _ had _ been. When Thatch entered the very edges of his vision, Izo found that he was the only thing he wanted to look at. “You know you can tell me what’s wrong,” Thatch murmured, face still turned towards the sky, voice so quiet that Izo could barely hear him over the sea breaking against the ship. “It can be just between us. Nobody else needs to know.”

Izo started to speak, and the words stuck fast. He moved his hand to his neck, trailing his fingertips over his throat as though he could coax the words out by hand. “I don’t know if I can.”

It was a lot. Perhaps too much to just unload on Thatch in such a way. He missed his sister, terribly - and worried about her every day. He missed his home. He missed his old family. It stung at Izo, and he closed his eyes. It was perfectly normal - he  _ knew _ it was normal - but thinking about Wano and the ones he’d left behind, and how much missed them, almost felt like a betrayal. There was no basis in reality for such a feeling, but it lingered.

“That’s okay too,” Thatch turned to look at Izo, right as his eyes opened again, and Izo’s eyes fell onto his smile, a full smile that lit up the man’s face and made his features glow in a way that outshone even the sun. It was a warmth and happiness that Izo envied, and it made his heart give a peculiar jolt. “Don’t need to use words to talk about it. Being near you...like this, it’s a different way we can talk about it. And you don’t have to say a word.”

Izo didn’t say anything, choosing to just gaze up at Thatch’s face as he pondered that. There was something in that smile that was dissolving the tension inside him, chasing away the sadness. It felt happy. And Izo had not felt happy in a very long time.

“Should I go?” Thatch gave him a wink.

“Stay.” Thatch had barely finished speaking before Izo answered. “Please stay.”

Another laugh, and another wink. Izo could only stare at that smile. “I’m not going anywhere until you feel better, no worries. You’re going to wish you could get rid of me.”

Laughing himself a bit as he sat upright, Izo very much doubted that. As he looked back out at the sea behind them, Thatch at his side and the sun at his back, he felt assurance again that he was home, and he was right where he needed to be.


End file.
